NASA's "Unprecedented" New Asteroid Sample Includes a "Treasure Chest of Extraterrestrial" Material

Initial analysis of the fresh sample reveals the right building blocks for life.

By Adam Barnhardt

A recently returned capsule may include a "treasure chest" of extraterrestrial material inside of it. The capsule includes a sample of the asteroid Bennu, and the earliest results suggest the asteroid includes the right materials needed to create life.

"The OSIRIS-REx sample is the biggest carbon-rich asteroid sample ever delivered to Earth and will help scientists investigate the origins of life on our own planet for generations to come," NASA Administrator Bill Nelson said in a statement promoting the finds. "Almost everything we do at NASA seeks to answer questions about who we are and where we come from. NASA missions like OSIRIS-REx will improve our understanding of asteroids that could threaten Earth while giving us a glimpse into what lies beyond. The sample has made it back to Earth, but there is still so much science to come – science like we've never seen before."

Those studying the asteroid think it may be possible it helped to create life between the presence of carbon and water included on its surface. "Our labs were ready for whatever Bennu had in store for us," added Vanessa Wyche, director, NASA Johnson. "We've had scientists and engineers working side-by-side for years to develop specialized gloveboxes and tools to keep the asteroid material pristine and to curate the samples so researchers now and decades from now can study this precious gift from the cosmos."

The water, according to University of Arizona professor of Planetary Sciences Dante Lauretta, is the possible source of the same compound here on Earth.

"That is how we think water got to Earth," Lauretta said. "The reason that Earth is a habitable world, that we have oceans and lakes and rivers and rain, is because these clay minerals landed on Earth 4 billion years ago to 4 and a half billion years ago, making our world habitable. So we're seeing the way that water got incorporated into the solid material."

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Given that researchers have only sampled the outside of the canister and have yet to look at the massive cache inside, Lauretta added that it may include "a whole treasure chest of extraterrestrial material."

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